With this, he moved towards the door, but Viviana arrested his departure.
“Stay, reverend sir,” she cried, with a look of great uneasiness; “if you are in possession of this dread secret, the lives of my companions are in your power. You will not betray them. Or, if you deem it your duty to reveal the plot to those endangered by it, you will give its contrivers timely warning.”
“Fear nothing,” rejoined Dee. “I cannot, were I so disposed, interfere with the fixed purposes of fate. The things revealed by my familiar spirits never pass my lips. They are more sacred than the disclosures made to a priest of your faith at the confessional. The bloody enterprise on which these zealots are bent will fail. I have warned Fawkes; but my warning, though conveyed by the lips of the dead, and by other means equally terrible, was unavailing. I would warn Catesby and Garnet, but they would heed me not. Viviana Radcliffe,” he continued, in a solemn voice, “you questioned me just now about the future. Have you courage to make the same demand from your dead father? If so, I will compel his corpse to answer you.”
“Oh! no—no,” cried Viviana, horror-stricken; “not for worlds would I commit so impious an act. Gladly as I would know what fate has in store for me, nothing should induce me to purchase the knowledge at so dreadful a price.”
“Farewell, then,” rejoined Dee. “At midnight, at the south porch of the Collegiate Church, I shall expect you.”
So saying, he took his departure; and, on entering the gallery, he perceived Catesby hastily retreating.
“Aha!” he muttered. “We have had a listener here. Well, no matter. What he has heard may prove serviceable to him.”
He then returned to the chamber occupied by Guy Fawkes, and finding he had dropped into a deep and tranquil sleep, motioned Kelley, who was standing by the bedside watching his slumbers with folded arms, to follow him, and bowing gravely to Garnet quitted the hall.
As he crossed the court, on his way to the drawbridge, Catesby suddenly threw himself in his path, and laying his hand upon his sword, cried in a menacing voice,—"Doctor Dee, neither you nor your companion shall quit the hall till you have solemnly sworn not to divulge aught pertaining to the plot, of which you have so mysteriously obtained information.”
“Is this my recompence for rescuing your comrade from the jaws of death, sir?” replied Dee, sternly.